Tragic end to baseball-loving couple's story

Husband killed in workplace shooting years after two were wed in favorite teams' jerseys

Mike Dawid, a devout Cardinals fan, and wife Ellie, who prefers the Astros, showed their fandom on their wedding day, and later, each snagged a home-run ball at a game on their anniversary.

As a devoted St. Louis Cardinals fan, Mike Dawid never let his wife, Ellie, forget about Albert Pujols' game-winning home run in the 2005 National League Championship Series. The Cardinals slugger blasted the ball high up onto the train tracks at Minute Maid Park, delaying the Astros' trip to their first World Series.

That was the kind of relationship they had.

He loved the Cards. She rooted for the Astros. And baseball was something they shared and got excited about, whether going to the ballpark together or ribbing each other about their respective teams.

At their wedding years ago, they both donned baseball jerseys. Their "fandom" was featured on Yahoo Sports in 2012, when both Mike and Ellie, in a remarkable twist of fate, each snagged home-run balls from their favorite teams while celebrating their anniversary at a game at Minute Maid Park.

Last week, though, Ellie and relatives were mourning the loss of Mike in an unthinkable tragedy: a workplace shooting. A former employee of the Katy-area trucking business where Mike worked entered the building armed with a shotgun and pistol and opened fire, killing Mike, who was 34, before taking his own life, authorities said.

The shooter reportedly declared as he entered the business, "You ruined my life," though it wasn't known if the gunman, identified as Marion Guy Williams, was speaking to anyone in particular.

Now Ellie's life, the one she shared with Mike and their 2-year-old son, Noah, has been shattered. Marini said it all seems surreal.

"We lost one of the biggest parts of our family," said Marini, speaking for the family.

In an interview Friday, Marini remembered getting the call that morning and driving in silence at top speed down Interstate 10 toward the police station in Katy. About 15 family members sat, paced and waited in the conference room there for hours before police confirmed that Dawid had in fact died. Police said he hadn't suffered long.

"It was more than the breath taken from the room," Marini said. "It was the life taken out of the room."

Marini said that ever since Mike and Ellie had begun dating a decade ago, Mike had been a role model, pushing people to try new projects, like fixing up automobiles. He would offer to help, asking only for beer in exchange.

A devout Catholic, Mike would wake every Monday at 2 in the morning to meditate.

"He just made you feel good no matter what it was," Marini said.

On Mike's Facebook page, a photo from April, 2014, shows him cradling a baby in his arms. A friend commented, "Proud papa." Last month, his Facebook page was updated with a photo showing him and Ellie walking, with Noah on his shoulders as she hauled a wagon.

A Gofundme account (www.gofundme.com/22n8vg8c) had raised more than $21,500 as of Friday afternoon, money that will go toward funeral expenses and for the couple's son. Marini said the family was still organizing funeral services.

And, in their grief, they were recalling the good times with Mike - like the June 7, 2012, game that put Mike and Ellie in the national spotlight.

It was the first time they had been in the Crawford Boxes in Minute Maid Park, Marini said. According to the Yahoo Sports story, the couple had already found a batting-practice ball wedged in Ellie's seat.

Then in the first inning, Ellie scooped up a baseball that Astros shortstop Jed Lowrie hit that jumped over the wall. She gave the ball to a little boy.

In the ninth inning, Cardinals third baseman David Freese homered. This time Mike grabbed the ball, Yahoo Sports reported.

As Yahoo Sports reporter Jeff Passan wrote in 2012: "Every baseball has a story, and the two that ended up in the married couple's hands when they were celebrating their anniversary can't be told without one another."